


Chaos

by wwheeljack



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: Gen, Manga!verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:34:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25090951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wwheeljack/pseuds/wwheeljack
Summary: David Rabb had been a tool from the moment he'd been adopted by Tragoedia, until he was released from the ancient monster's grasp upon his defeat - along with all others controlled by Tragoedia. But it wouldn't be that easy, would it?
Kudos: 2





	Chaos

**Author's Note:**

> Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (C) Konami

" _Feather of Ma'at… ghosts of the priests… I will… have my revenge…"_

" _Revenge…"_

The beeping of a monitor was the first sound that punctured his consciousness, though it echoed distantly, muffled as if by water. He couldn't… remember the last time he'd heard anything… anything but that voice…

There… it was louder… growing ever so more pronounced… it sounded…

He could hear his own heartbeat - not pounding, as it had when _he'd_ whisper in his mind, but a steady, relaxed beat that echoed to his right.

The dying sunlight burned his eyes as his vision slowly returned to him in dizzying, blurry shapes. He did not know where he was - everything from the ceiling and walls were unfamiliar to him.

He could feel something cold pressed against his chest, though it did not weigh on him like…

_Chains._

Slowly, cautiously, he moved his right arm, which responded stiffly and ached at the joint of his shoulder with the echo of chains jerking his arms, and brushed the object on his chest.

He recoiled slightly when his fingers brushed cold metal and a strange, filmy gauze that had leads trailing upwards and to his right.

His gaze shifted to his right and up, following the trail of the leads up to where a large monitor rested. The display of the monitor pulsed with a heartbeat - _his_ heartbeat!

_A hospital? What - what am I doing in a hospital?_

He last remembered a beautiful dragon - _a… a spirit card… Light… and Darkness… dragon! -_ breathing a brilliant pulse of white light and then-

" _You failed!"_

_His voice was weaker than usual but the rage that always echoed in the dark shadow's words seemed to have only increased in response._

" _You could not even complete your task! Your arrogance gave the feather of Ma'at the chance to weaken me! For that," the shadow's voice screamed within his head, splitting his mind with an agonized cry, "you know full well the punishment!"_

A gust of air escaped from his lungs as awareness of his situation came to him. He'd been engaged in a Shadow Duel against Chazz Princeton, who held Light and Darkness - a spirit card that the shadow feared deeply - and had lost.

Then…

Voices echoed outside the door of his room, though he could not recognize any of the four that were speaking. And he could not understand the whole of their conversation but for a few words, including a few names and…

"Bastion Misawa and Adrian Gecko of the American Duel Academy have both awoken," the deep, male voice that he'd heard outside his door moments earlier suddenly became starkly clear as the door to his room opened and revealed four people.

At the head of the group was a thickset, balding man, who was flanked by a tall man with long blond hair, and two women, one with a red jacket and black hair and the other with auburn hair.

The woman with auburn hair approached his bed as the thickset man gestured towards him. "If the other two woke up, then David Rabb should soon too, correct, Dr. Ayukawa?"

"Yes," the doctor confirmed quietly as she looked over his monitor, and then looked down at him.

"He's awake," she confirmed as the woman looked down at him and gave him a smile. "How are you feeling, David?"

"Alright," David replied quietly. He saw no reason to mention that his arms, legs and torso still ached from where the chains from the shadow's prison had wrapped around his body, least these four people think him insane.

"That's good to hear," the thickset man smiled, "I'll have to inform Mr. Mackenzie on your status. You were the last of the unconscious students to wake up. Dr. Ayukawa was getting worried…"

"Thank you," David felt a flash of apprehension at the mention of Mr. Mackenzie, though why he couldn't explain - Mr. Mackenzie was his father, after all. "I'm sure he will be happy to know I am awake, sir."

Both men left David's room when Dr. Ayukawa informed them that she needed to perform an exam on David, though the second woman did not move a muscle as the doctor began checking his responses and motor functions. David watched the dark haired woman's eyes narrow slightly as the doctor had him recite what he could remember before waking up in the hospital room - she seemed to almost flinch when David was asked to explain about the shadow and how it affected his duel between Chazz and himself.

Finally the doctor finished her questioning and, with a gesture towards the foot of his bed and a note that they had cleaned his uniform and prepared it for him, departed from his room alongside the dark haired woman. David let out a tired sigh upon the departure of the two women, his eyes shifting to the window that gave a view of the vast ocean that flanked the Academy's entire island.

He'd come to the island under the shadow's directive to find and capture a spirit card but, now that the shadow's voice had faded from his mind - for what reason he did not know - David couldn't help but admire the solitude of the island. His Duel Academy was located on the outskirts of a large city and, though it was surrounded by trees, was far different from the Japanese Duel Academy.

No response followed David's thoughts - his mind was clear of anything but his own thoughts… no angry voice chiding him or laughing at him or even encouraging him - and it left him with an unused to emptiness. _I can't even remember a time when I didn't hear that voice in my thoughts… what happened to it? Maybe Reggie will know?_

With the thought of his sister - and questioning her on the origin on the voice - set into his thoughts, David changed into his uniform quickly and left the hospital room. He did not know where he would find Reggie - or his father, for that matter - though he figured that the chancellor would know of his family's whereabouts.

He had just reached the chancellor's office when the door opened and Jaden Yuki and Chazz Princeton froze in the doorway. Both took almost imperceptible defensive stances as they recognized him, and David did not miss the dark look of hate that crossed Chazz's face when he looked up at David.

David stepped out of the way of the two freshman duelists - with the voice no longer urging him on, David had no quarrel with either student - and watched as the two finally left.

"You may come in."

Apprehension spiked through David as he entered the chancellor's office, and that unease did not fade even when he saw Reggie and his father both standing in the room. Reggie cast him a momentary glance before she turned away quickly, as if she couldn't stomach looking at him.

"Ah, Chancellor Sheppard was just informing us that you regained consciousness. David, correct?" Principal Mackenzie's smile was kind but nothing in the way he looked at David offered up any form of recognition to him.

Reggie looked back at David as he approached the side of his sister and Principal Mackenzie and gave a stiff nod to his Mackenzie.

"Yes, sir, you are correct on both terms," David replied slowly. He had a sinking feeling that his father - though not by blood - did not recognize him.

Principal Mackenzie nodded and then continued his conversation with Sheppard as Reggie finally turned to David. "I'll explain on the helicopter. We're leaving tonight."

"Reggie? But- what-"

" _Later_."

* * *

The atmosphere within the helicopter was stiff as it flew away from Duel Academy, and all that had happened on the island. Jesse Anderson, Axel Brody and Aster Phoenix were sitting closest to the cockpit, and all three kept shooting glances towards Principal Mackenzie and David himself. Jim Cook was sleeping at the back of the helicopter, a tight, pained frown pulling at his lips. Adrian Gecko was looking at his deck with occasional glances towards the front of the helicopter, where Principal Mackenzie was speaking with the pilots.

Reggie, who was the only one sitting close to David, finally let out a sigh as she faced him. "Father doesn't recognize you as his son because…"

"I _get_ it, Reggie," David snapped, "it was Tragoedia who adopted me, not him. I'm just a… another student to him now. The only one who wanted me was an ancient Eygptian monster - and only so he could use me."

"That monster used me too, David," Reggie snapped harshly, "just like it used my father! It used us all for its own designs."

David let out an exaggerated snort before he looked away from his sister, crossed his arms and buried himself in his thoughts. Reggie had explained to him everything about Tragoedia - the voice he'd heard in his head for the last six years - and how the monster had taken control of her father's body, murdered Aster Phoenix's father, and had controlled Reggie, Jim and David.

She'd told him that Tragoedia had possessed all of them to do his bidding and that only Chazz Princeton and Jaden Yuki and their spirit monsters - Winged Kuriboh and Light and Darkness Dragon - had been able to destroy the monster that had been residing in his father's body. The defeat of Tragoedia had freed David and everyone else from the monster's control, but it left him…

_Was it all Tragoedia… or was all that I did, me?_

David looked out the window of the helicopter and watched as the ocean raced beneath him, churning as swiftly as his thoughts.


End file.
